March 7, 2025 with Carla Ward and Ishaa Vinod Chopra
Supporting Emotional Development
In this episode of The Everything ECE Podcast, Carla sits down with Ishaa Vinod Chopra, an early childhood educator and performing artist, to explore how movement and dance can support mental health for Early Childhood Educators. They discuss the importance of emotional regulation for both educators and children, breaking the stigma around mental well-being, and how integrating dance into learning spaces can create a sense of belonging and self-expression.
Tune in to hear how dance can be a simple yet powerful tool to promote well-being in early childhood education.
Ishaa Vinod Chopra
Ishaa’s approach extrapolates her lived experiences in mental health and applies it to education, mental health advocacy and multidisciplinary arts. She aims to foster empathy, positivity, and self-awareness while sparking mental health discussions and reducing stigmas by creating safe spaces for stigmatized conversations in the AODA, Sunnybrook Patient and Family Advisory Committee(s). As a Member Artist of the Workman Arts Organization, she integrates dance therapy into the community for healing and expression by infusing Latin, Indian Classical and Folk styles as a facilitator. In her Memoir ‘Finding Order in Disorder’ ; in lucid, simple prose, she addresses what it is like to be diagnosed with bipolar disorder, how it affects interpersonal relationships, and how societal norms influence our understanding of and responses to mental health issues. As a Research Associate of a York Master’s Thesis documentary project titled ‘Unfinished,’ she explores her journey in mental health vis-à-vis multidisciplinary arts. She is currently the Founder and Executive Director of a nonprofit NGO titled: Finding Order in Disorder Foundation.